Trump making America work for himself

WASHINGTON – Those who keep saying the Trump administration has done nothing for you, Real America, are so wrong!

Don’t like skipping work to take your child to the doctor? Republicans have done away with the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which protected 9 million children whose families’ insurance policies don’t cover them because of a legal glitch. Never mind that the U.S. ranks 26th among developed nations on infant mortality.

Oh yes, Trump wants to help taxpayers by reducing by 25 percent food stamps that provide $1.40 per meal for poor children, the disabled and the elderly and get rid of nutrition requirements for children’s school lunch programs.

While stripping the middle class of state and local income and property tax deductions, taking away teachers’ $250 deduction for buying school supplies for their classrooms and making student loans more expensive, the House has passed a tax bill that would give the Trump family a $1.1 billion tax cut without even requiring they make their luxury goods in the United States. Just a boon to your deserving neighbors in the White House.

Another soon-to-be-received gift from Congress is a major cut to social welfare spending such as, oh well, Medicare. Because of the GOP’s need to spend billions of dollars on tax cuts for corporations and wealthy people, adding a couple of trillion dollars to the national debt, Congress must offset this by spending cuts.

They’ll deal with specifics later after we have celebrated the tax cuts even though most of us will not see any tax cuts of significance and many in the middle class will get huge tax hikes.

Consumers are getting another real treat – industry members across the board are being given the tools to dismantle regulations they don’t like. A woman from the pesticide industry now decides which pesticides are approved for use. A man from the pharmaceutical industry oversees health regulations and drugs. Critics of consumer finance protection rules will decide which ones get shelved. Climate change deniers head all the environmental protection agencies. Oil and gas people are deciding which pristine parks and wilderness get drilled. Ethics schmethics. Science is so yesterday. Literally.

The U.S. embassy in Moscow now will be guarded by a security firm founded by former KGB agents and spies under a no-bid contract for $2.8 million. That’s because Trump joyously announced he was saving you the burden of paying salaries by eliminating U.S. guards and diplomats.

By the way, it doesn’t matter if Russia meddled in the U.S, election and Vladimir Putin is a murderous dictator because Trump wants to work with Russia on world peace.

Apparently, sometimes you have to get along with thugs, despots and even child molesters to achieve the greater good even if it is not clear what the greater good is.

Incidentally, thousands of the security cameras keeping track of us all over the United States, including on military bases, are made in China by a firm with ties to its communist government despite cybersecurity warnings by our government.

If you own a puppy mill, animal research lab, roadside pet farm or circus, good news! The government no longer cares if you abuse your animals.

Perhaps most amazing is Trump’s firm insistence to Americans that if they don’t like the facts that the media uncovers, they can dismiss anything distasteful as “fake news” and just believe Trump’s alternatives. It solves so much awkwardness.

One last word. Washington does have a heart. After telling 100 mostly Hispanic students they would be deported because their applications for the Dreamers program were delayed by the U.S. Post Office, a change has occurred! The applications may be resubmitted. But Trump still wants to end the program to save us from hard-working young people who have lived here most of their lives.

Donald Trump. Working for us, but mostly for him.

Ann McFeatters is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may send her email at amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.